Playlist of the Week - Week of 11/25 - In which I desperately try to not be ashamed of my study playlist

      Hello and welcome to another iteration of playlist of the week. In keeping with the insanity of the holiday season, I present my best impression of a final cram session playlist. Not much else to say. Let's get cracking.

           1. Shadows Fall - Blind Faith
           2. Lionheart - Don't Speak My Name
           3. As I Lay Dying - Cauterize
           4. The Ghost Inside - Engine 45
           5. August Burns Red - Empire
           6. The Acacia Strain - The Impaler
           7. Unearth - The Lying World
           8. Agnostic Front - I Had Enough

    As usual, the playlist is here. Happy listening!

Motionless in White go full Worsnop, Hot Topic launches a lingerie line, Dillinger are on Sumerian, and Silverstein release EVERYTHING

       It's been a quiet week on the blog, mostly because I've been in full study mode for finals. Late nights, early mornings, and too much coffee have become a part of my life once again. Oh well. That's the fun of being premed. In any case, this week has been one of the silliest so far - to say nothing of how this month has been for music in general. Whitechapel and Emmure are touring with Obey the Brave as part of the 'Brothers of Brutality' tour next year. I don't quite know what's funnier - the name of the tour, or the lineup. Brace yourself to be counting snapbacks.
      And yes, of course I'm going.
      But you're looking at the title and thinking 'Idiotinremission, talk about that stuff! It sounds silly as HELL'! Well, kids, let me preface this by saying that scene girls make everything hilarious. That being said, let's dive right in:

     So Motionless in White. I've written about them on this blog multiple times, but they never seem to leave me alone. Maybe it's because they release shit like this:
     This is the most egotistical thing I've seen in a long, long time. Pretty much since Danny Worsnop came on stage and introduced himself as "I am Danny Worsnop, and I am rock n' roll." Apparently Chris Motionless is the only member of the band now. And we're still supposed to take them seriously? Good lord, they make it too easy to mock them sometimes.
      But in the vein of Hot Topic, let's talk about their new lingerie line. Yep. You heard that right. The alternative clothing store has launched an intimate wear line. Is it expensive as all hell? Check. Is it basically Victoria's Secret dyed black and red? Double check (Let's just say I had a good time checking out the catalogue ;) ).
This is almost as lulzy as Yoko Ono's horrifically weird new clothing line. Except, let's face it, we all expected something like this out of Yoko Ono. I can safely say we did NOT expect to see Hot Topic doing lingerie.



     The Dillinger Escape Plan also signed to Sumerian Records earlier this week. Infamous for their chaotic, ridiculous stage presence, and even more renowned for their longevity - DEP and Every Time I Die are some of the few bands still touring since the 90s - Dillinger may very well bring some eminence to a record label now infamous for bands like Asking Alexandria and I See Stars/

      Lastly, and by no means leastly, Silverstein have announced their sixth studio album (since we're talking about old bands) This is How the Wind Shifts! The record will be due out February 5th, and the first single 'Stand Amid the Roar' has already been released - and yes, it's awesome. It's a progression from Rescue that obviously hasn't forgotten the sound of Arrivals and Departures, and (fortunately) doesn't feature the Canadian post-hardcore group's misfortune for strange grammatical structures ('Your ship has been sailed' makes me close my eyes and pretend I didn't hear it every time).
       Click here to listen to the new single. Dates for the new tour are also coming up - and they'll be supported by Glass Cloud. This is one lineup I'm excited for.

           

Playlist of the Week - Week of 11/18 - Let's get Proggy

      Welcome to another rendition of Playlist of the Week. This week, we examine my best impression of the new Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza.

        Damn.

          1.) Born of Osiris - Follow the Signs
          2.) The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza - The Alpha/ The Omega
          3.) Veil of Maya - It's Not Safe to Swim Today
          4.) John 5 - Blues Balls
          5.) Art By Numbers -Regression to the Meme
          6.) Emmure - Children of Cybertron (for the lols. Back to srs now.)
          7.) The Faceless - The Deconsecrated
          8.) Protest the Hero - Wretch


     The full playlist can be found here as usual. Happy listening!
     

Chris Brown Causes More Butthurt

       In perhaps the lulziest moment of 'pop artists trying to be edgy', Chris Brown has been spotted wearing a leather jacket bearing patches from bands as heavy as Municipal Waste and Suicidal Tendencies at a show earlier this week.
       As metalheads are wont to do, the community went into a state of uproar at this 'blasphemy' and a barrage of hate was levied at the R&B artist. Today marks the climax of this silliness as Brown's...estranged...ex Rihanna is featured on the back of her album wearing a similar coat. Municipal Waste have remained surprisingly cool with the situation, tweeting "For the record. Chris Brown can sport our shit all he wants. We still think he is a fucking moron."
       It's times like these that the elitism of the metalhead community shines through - when fans have the inability to laugh at the overproduced idiots trying to look cool and instead turn this into a perceived 'war on metal' or a mockery when, really, it's obvious it was just an aesthetic move on the artists' part.
       Metalsucks has the full story.

*sigh* Falling in Reverse is AP's Artist of the Year

        Well, AP has released their 'artist of the year' for 2012, and it is Ronnie Radke's wretched little five-piece. Perhaps there's been a mixup between with 'most hated band of the year'. Mitch Lucker gets a little corner all to himself to be remembered by, and we're treated to Radke's smug little grin on two covers.
        While I understand it's unlikely this choice was made with the I See Stars scandal taken into account, it's nevertheless a complete shock and disappointment to me that this got through, especially since the band released an album last year and has only really been popular for Radke's douchebaggery in the past few months.
          In any case, AP has a tendency to suck up to bands it badly wants on their tour - Miss May I was featured in way too many issues of AP until they were announced as headlining the AP tour. Maybe they're after Falling in Reverse for next year? In any case, I'm very disappointed in AP for this latest rendition of idiocy - the prospect of a section dedicated to the Woe Is Me and Issues 'feud', and putting Sleeping With Sirens and Blood on the Dance Floor as part of 2012's 'Best Bands' makes me sigh even harder.

 

       If you wanted proof to take publications with a grain of salt, here it is.

Playlist of the Week - Week of 11/11 - Chelsea Grin's new EP isn't all that horrific

      Welcome to another iteration of playlist of the week. This week I found myself listening more and more to Chelsea Grin's new EP Evolve, which was released over the summer. It was one hell of a switch for a deathcore band - now they've got clean vocals? What? In any case, it isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be, and I wound up going a little heavier than I have in a few months.
        That, and the new Pierce the Veil is growing on me.

1. Veil of Maya - 20/200
2. Chelsea Grin - S.H.O.T
3. Upon a Burning Body - Heat
4. Shai Hulud - Set Your Body Ablaze
5. Trivium - Shogun
6. letlive - The Sick, Sick, 6.8 Billion
7. Glass Cloud - If He Dies, He Dies
8. Pierce the Veil - The First Punch

   As usual, the playlist is right here. Enjoy!

Damn, it feels good to be right (Motionless in White - Infamous Review)

      

Well, the moment is finally upon us. After months of hype, two singles, multiple studio updates, and a glaring leak a month previous, the new Motionless in White record was released earlier this week. I've talked about the Pennsylvania makeup-friendly group in the past - when they were announced as one of Warped's headliners this summer (alongside Blessthefall and Sleeping With Sirens) and last week going into the release of Infamous, their third studio album (there is a mistake on the former post that lists Creatures as MIW's first. It's their second). But now the golden moment is upon us, and, if you can't read from the title, everything I was expecting from the band came true.

         The band's transformation from originality to imitation is almost complete - Creatures' sound is basically going to stay on that record. Infamous decided to tone up the synth on at least half the album, transforming it from metalcore into Marilyn Manson. Now, I have nothing against Manson, but I've never been too fond of his music. It just isn't my first choice of listening material. Transformation is inevitable, and in some case welcomed, but unfortunately for MIW, this falls flat. Mostly for exactly the reasons I said going into Infamous  - Manson has been playing with and refining this sound for years, since before MIW had even formed.
           The result is an eclectic mashup of weak hooks, weaker riffs, and vocals that seem to be determined to mimic Marilyn Manson at any cost. The introductory track 'Black Damask (The Fog)' is, admittedly, rather cool to listen to as it features an eerie piano until launching into an energetically metalcore sound, but the rest of the record fares less well. The introduction to 'A-M-E-R-I-C-A' involves a bloopy synth as Chris Motionless drawls into a microphone about consumerism that instantly made me think 'Beautiful People'. 'Hatefuck', lyrically and sonically, sounds almost exactly like 'sAINT'.

            Rounding off the cast of imitations are the two singles that were released before - 'Devil's Night' and 'If It's Dead We Kill It' - and two of the record's best hitters - 'Puppets 2 (The Rain)' (which I swear features Matt Heafy of Trivium) and 'Burned at Both Ends'.  What makes these songs the best? Because they didn't completely trash the metalcore-y sound of Creatures. The synth is downplayed (for MIW songs, which means you can barely hear anything over it), and there's an angrier feel to them that makes them all in all far more palatable for someone who has never really been into Marilyn Manson and his derivatives.
          That, and the lyrics are a return to some of the best MIW has to offer. Emotional, yet blistering, with lines like 'Is there a future when you only see in memories? When every loss, every beauty just reminds you of the past, how can you just let go?' contrasted with 'Strip the world and paint it fucking black, now what have you become? You once felt like home, now you're just a ghost in the fog'. There seems to be a recurring lyrical theme of anti-materialism and a rejection of the superficial that's been common to MIW in the past. In Infamous, the band deals with the long-term effect of being shallow - 'If It's Dead We Kill It' concerns itself with models and the fashion industry. Even with the more Manson-esque songs, the band still shows they're talented lyricists. It's a pity the instrumentals just don't hold up.
       This is primarily because it feels like the band has been constantly trying to evolve. With every progressive record, the band has undergone rapid changes - their first EP was completely organic, for example - and while they may have passed their peak, there is still room to return to form. With Creatures' sound not completely eschewed, and the fact that Infamous hasn't quite received the same reception Creatures did, it's fairly obvious what was a better sound.
       Bottom line, despite sharing a name with the catastrophically awful Abandon All Ships album released this year, MIW's take on a record called Infamous is a great example of what happens when you try to change too fast, and your ego starts to play a part. It's not a complete failure, but for the record, I only liked about a quarter of the album.
        Motionless in White have begun touring with Chelsea Grin, Upon this Dawning, and some band called the Witch Was Right from late November into mid-December as part of the Infamous tour.